Trump pick would drain Delta water supply

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Donald Trump was elected to the drain the swamp, not the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The president’s choice of David Bernhardt to serve as deputy Interior Department secretary would be a disaster for California’s environment and water quality. The former lobbyist for the mammoth, water-sucking Westlands Water District is the last person the state should want representing it on crucial California water issues.

Let’s not forget the extent of Trump’s total ignorance of the state’s water predicament. Talking to a group of Central Valley farmers a year ago, Trump declared, “There is no drought.” If that wasn’t bad enough, he added, “Even the environmentalists don’t know why” a minimum amount of water has to flow into the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to protect the health of the waterway.

Bernhardt’s confirmation would only re-enforce that lunacy. California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris should tell their fellow senators that they should soundly reject his confirmation in June when it comes up for a vote.

Westlands dictates water usage for 600,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley, an area that’s roughly the size of Rhode Island. Big Ag in the valley has been pumping so much water from wells during the recent drought that the valley’s groundwater is severely depleted, causing the land to sink at such a high rate that it’s threatening valuable infrastructure. But that hasn’t stopped Westlands from pumping more groundwater.

It’s widely known that Westlands covets more of the precious Delta water that provides nearly half of Silicon Valley’s supply. Bernhardt, a lobbyist from Westlands from 2011-2016, and his firm weren’t being paid more than $1 million to preserve the fragile health of the Delta, the largest estuary west of the Mississippi. In fact, Bernhardt helped Westlands develop lawsuits that specifically tried to do away with California’s environmental water protections.

Bernhardt, who testified at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing two weeks ago, reportedly avoided talking about the impact of climate change when asked.

He also said he would recuse himself for a year on any issues that involved his former clients, but that may not technically apply if he is delving into a policy issue that directly impacts the Delta.

Every respected scientific study of the Delta has concluded that the best way to protect its health is to pour more water into it, not less.

California — and Westlands — will be making a decision in the months ahead on whether to proceed with Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion Delta tunnels project, which would force the state and federal government to make a series of crucial environmental decisions about endangered species and preserving the quality of the Delta’s water.

Bernhardt is a very poor choice to be involved in deciding whether to build the tunnels and how best to manage the state’s water supply while also protecting the health of the Delta.